Art is an
expression of
everything and
the painting
illustrates that
point
"The painted scenes were my
world. I knew nothing but
shadows and thought them real"
Plato's analogy of the cave
"the whole thing
simply appeals to
our sense of
dramatic effect" 85
"He is all my art
to me"
Youth and beauty
It's superiority but its mortal fate
"time is
jealous of
you, and
warns
against
your lilies
and your
roses" 23
"It has its divine right of
sovereignty" 22
"ugliness
is one of
the seven
deadly
virtues"
Influence and manipulation
Like Dracula, it's presented as a
bad thing and also how it changes
someone.
Whilst
Dracula's
victims became
vampires, LH's
become LH
"Because to influence a person is
to give them one's own soul"
"it was a
poisonous
book" 104
"Don't
spoil
him"
16
Good vs Evil
Superego=Basil/Id=LH
Also an internal battle in DG - psycomachia
"Each of us have heaven
and hell in him"
"Let it
be for
good,
not for
evil
Morality and sin
"To cure the soul by
means of the senses"
Questions the reality
of morals and the
ugliness of sin though
the painting
"sin is a thing that
writes itself across a
man's face"
"the terror of
society, which is
the basis of
morals" 19
Romanticism vs reality
"His beauty had
been to him but a
mask, his youth
but a mockery"
the "dislike of Realism is
the rage of Caliban
seeing his own face in a
glass...the dislike of
Romanticism is the rage
of Caliban not seeing his
own face in a glass"
"I want to make
Romeo jealous"
Women and men
Behaviour highlights the
paradox of men's behavior
"Her [Gladys] clever
tongue gets on one's
nerves"
"She is very
clever, too clever
for a woman."
151
"decorative sex"
"the husbands of very beautiful
women belong to the criminal
classes" 148
Redemption
"The prayer of your pride has been
answered. The prayer of your
repentance will be answered also" 132
"Down on your knees!" 158
execution or prayer?
The Double
The painting and Dorian are the double -
at first positive and enlightening but then
powerful and evil
"the most magical of mirrors. As
it had revealed to him his own
body, so it would reveal to him
his own soul"
hidden in
the
schoolroom
"it had been suggested to him by
the image on the canvas" 132
The guilty conscience
"It was the living death of his own soul
that troubled him" 182